Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Connolly, Matthew C.
Language:	English
Published:	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2018
Subjects:	Literature British and Irish Literature History Victorian Literature Immersion History of the Book Modernist Literature Periodical Studies Empire and Colonial Studies Gender Nineteenth Century Charles Dickens Mary Elizabeth Braddon Flora Annie Steel Joseph Conrad
Online Access:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531503253619764

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spelling	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu15315032536197642021-08-03T07:07:31Z Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace Connolly, Matthew C. Literature British and Irish Literature History Victorian Literature Immersion History of the Book Modernist Literature Periodical Studies Empire and Colonial Studies Gender Nineteenth Century Charles Dickens Mary Elizabeth Braddon Flora Annie Steel Joseph Conrad Reading as Forgetting interprets representations of immersive readers within Victorian novels and cultural criticism in four major moments in nineteenth-century literary history: in the novels of industrial contact in the 1840s and 50s, the popular sensation fiction of the 1860s, the late-century representations of the 1857 Indian Rebellion, and the incipient modernist writing of Joseph Conrad. In new readings of novels, letters, advertisements, and journalism, I contend that the authorial tendency to show readers in a state of self-forgetful absorption offered a means to define the value of the novel in its relation to developments such as the rise of the railroad, the explosion of magazines and newspapers, and the growth of English colonial communities abroad. Revealing the often contradictory uses of readerly immersion as a sympathetic ideal, a vulnerable experience, an important part of imperial solidarity, or a symptom of imperial disintegration, Reading as Forgetting investigates how the Victorians vigorously debated local reading practices in the context of global developments in industry and Empire. The relationship between emotional and physical “transport” emerges as a crucial component of these debates. Throughout Reading as Forgetting, I show how the supposed ability of the novel to transport the reader into an immersive, self-forgetful state interacted with spatial dislocations caused by the physical movements of industry and Empire. Though the Victorian period is often conceived as an era of unabashed publicity and popular appeal, I discuss how warring representations of readerly immersion acted as strategies of authentication. Immersion is revealed to be a critical concept associated with readers, but one that helped authors and critics create cultural distinctions across the literary landscape that are traditionally associated with twentieth-century writing. 2018 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531503253619764 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531503253619764 restricted--full text unavailable until 2023-08-06 This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection	NDLTD
language	English
sources	NDLTD
topic	Literature British and Irish Literature History Victorian Literature Immersion History of the Book Modernist Literature Periodical Studies Empire and Colonial Studies Gender Nineteenth Century Charles Dickens Mary Elizabeth Braddon Flora Annie Steel Joseph Conrad
spellingShingle	Literature British and Irish Literature History Victorian Literature Immersion History of the Book Modernist Literature Periodical Studies Empire and Colonial Studies Gender Nineteenth Century Charles Dickens Mary Elizabeth Braddon Flora Annie Steel Joseph Conrad Connolly, Matthew C. Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace
author	Connolly, Matthew C.
author_facet	Connolly, Matthew C.
author_sort	Connolly, Matthew C.
title	Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace
title_short	Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace
title_full	Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace
title_fullStr	Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace
title_full_unstemmed	Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace
title_sort	reading as forgetting: sympathetic transport and the victorian literary marketplace
publisher	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate	2018
url	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531503253619764
work_keys_str_mv	AT connollymatthewc readingasforgettingsympathetictransportandthevictorianliterarymarketplace
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Reading as Forgetting: Sympathetic Transport and the Victorian Literary Marketplace

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